Abstract
This work assesses one specific aspect of the relationship between auditory rhythm cognition and language skill: regularity perception. In a group of 26 adult participants, native speakers of 11 different native languages, we demonstrate a strong and significant correlation between the ability to detect a “roughly” regular beat and rapid automatized naming (RAN) as a measure of language skill (Spearman's rho, −0.47, p < 0.01). There was no such robust relationship for the “mirror image” task of irregularity detection, i.e., the ability to detect ongoing small deviations from a regular beat. The correlation between RAN and regularity detection remained significant after partialling out performance on the irregularity detection task (rho, −0.41, p, 0.022), non-verbal IQ (rho, −0.37, p < 0.05), or musical expertise (rho, −0.31, p < 0.05). Whilst being consistent with the “shared resources model” in terms of rhythm as a common basis of language and music, evolutionarily as well as in individual development, the results also document how two related rhythm processing abilities relate differently to language skill. Specifically, the results support a universal relationship between rhythmic regularity detection and reading skill that is robust to accounting for differences in fluid intelligence and musical expertise, and transcends language-specific differences in speech rhythm.
Highlights
The existence of a general relationship between language skill and auditory processing is widely accepted (Lukens, 1896)
We argue that the ability to detect a roughly regular beat is a sensitive measure for a “temporal scaffolding mechanism” that supports the perception and production of any language, despite possible differences in speech rhythm
Note that for irregularity detection, lower threshold values indicate better performance, whilst for regularity detection higher thresholds are better, the negative Spearman’s rho correlation coefficient between the two tasks. Performance on both timing tasks was positively correlated with musical expertise, and this effect was somewhat stronger for regularity detection than irregularity detection
Summary
The existence of a general relationship between language skill and auditory processing is widely accepted (Lukens, 1896). We typically acquire a language by first listening to it, and by speaking it, before developing reading and writing skills (Harris, 1947). The behavioral link between speech and language skills on the one hand, and aspects of temporal processing on the other, has been attracting research interest in recent decades. Studies used single sounds or sound pairs, demonstrating links with reading skill, or language impairments for temporal processing ability at the segmental time scale of individual phonemes (Tallal, 1980; Wright et al, 1997; Goswami et al, 2002; Walker et al, 2006; Moore et al, 2010). Language typically comes in sentences, i.e., streams of syllables consisting of several phonemes over a period of seconds, typically
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